Solo trip... no. 1- May, 2025

Last night, I couldn’t sleep. That’s usually not me.. I am the kind who sleeps the 3^rd minute after I hit the bed. But here I was twisting and turning.. I was fearing the spontaneous trip I had planned for myself from the next day..

Sunishka my daughter and me had the night-randam-talk we usually have, where we went over, how we would be physically pretty close the next 4 days, but wouldn’t be seeing each other…

She was on her co-leading camp through Foliage where she would be handling 18-20 kids at Mahabaleshwar. I on the other hand had planned an impromptu trip to Mona Patrao’s Redstone Eco Farm at Panchgani. Had it on my mind to visit her place since a long long time. And there was this strong urge to do a solo trip and things just fell in place.

Why the solo trip… well.. I really don’t know. I wanted a break away from all the definitions of ‘me’.. and enter the ‘unknown’ zone of me, where I can get influenced and be anyone I want to, all over again.
I wanted to go back to the me at the age of 15,17, 21, 25 ,28 or even 35….
But the ‘within me’,  who I very clearly wasn’t fully aware off, was wary of something.

I am a very independent person, don’t get me wrong… but this was a very different trip I had set for myself. The only friend I had along was ‘myself’( a major part of whom I still don’t know 😊). I was going to stay with another unknown lady for the next 4 days. I didn’t have an agenda of ‘to do’ things. I was to drive alone for 3 hours to reach this place, the place didn’t have food options, so I would have to fend for myself the 4 days. It didn’t allow outside food to be ordered in, so I had to go out and eat alone, all the days. I didn’t want to splurge, so decided to give myself a meagre budget of food everyday. I wanted to relax.. by writing, sketching, reading, practicing my yoga and if possible singing too..

The moon light doesn’t bring in as much energy as the sun does. So I have noticed lately that the kind of thoughts that the night brings in, also varies from the ones that occur to you in the mornings.

I caught a little bit of sleep in the morning before my yoga class and was ready to take on the adventure. The thoughts of last night, seemed to have vanished. After the yoga class.. as I looked at the phone.. noticed a message from Sagar. “ Forgot my dabba, drop it off as you go”

Well the solo trip… hadn’t quite yet started… 😊

Left around 9.40 am, went through Sagar’s office, met him and gave him the dabba. I asked him if he had really forgotten the dabba.. wishing for a romantic answer 😊 Being his usual self, he said.. of course I forgot the dabba.. It’s a new bag, I didn’t notice it !!

I smiled and left saying goodbyes…

I had made a ‘Shubha favs’ playlist of my Spotify and shuffled it and played it as I got on the highway..

Any guess which song played first ???

A cover version of ….Jodi tore dakshonik na she tabe eklachalo re…

I reached Panchgani around 12.30 in the afternoon on 7^th May. The GPS said “reached”, but I couldn’t find ‘Redstone Eco Center and Organic Farm’. So I called Mona, and she directed me to find a hidden wooden gate opposite a very happening tourist spot. I turned the car and eventually found the place. The gate was half open and I could slide my car in. It was an uphill resdtoned road. After about 100 mtrs, there was a half exposed old Maruti 800 parked and another uphill road had an old Thar parked. I didn’t know how much higher the place went, so I drove until the Thar and noticed a lady working there. Soon Mona herself came near the car and advised me on the parking. I alighted the car and took out my small suitcase and bagpack.

Mona led me into her world. I was welcomed by 3 of her dogs, and they all together showed me the house. The house had a superb welcoming vibe. It was open in all senses. There were doors and windows, but most of them open to the 2 acre area around the house which had some barren patch, a garden, and also a food forest! 

                                 

I had room no: 6 allocated to me. It was cute room with a slanting roof and a window that opened to a red oxide landing verandah. 

The temperature was almost 10 degrees lesser than Pune and a very pleasant afternoon. I lied down for a while and then stepped out for grab some lunch for myself. I didn’t want to drive again, so decided to select one of the restaurants close by for this meal. Rustoms it was..I got 2 menu cards and also glares from people in the other tables. But the uneasiness settled after I ordered my dansak dal, rice and raita and enjoyed it.. alone!

I haven’t eaten solo meals outside for a long time now, and it felt new and weird. But it was nice and way quicker 😊 .. I went back to Redstone and explored the deck and started reading through some of the interesting books there.

There were mountains all around, though instrumental music of famous 90s numbers were playing from close by… all typical touristy joints.

There were 2 house helps who come to Redstone every morning, but leave around 5.30 in the evening. Bhagi bai and Vidya, who I got introduced to, too. Vidya showed me where the milk, sugar and tea powder was. There was a stove and gas in the dining area outside, where guests could make their own chai/ coffee. I had a cup for myself around 4.30 pm and that was my last food for the day.

As I was washing the tea utensils I had used, I noticed something moving in the kitchen. I didn’t pay much heed.. though I soon noticed all the 3 dogs around the kitchen area sniffing and looking for something. Mona was a little busy with her routine things, so didn’t get to spend a lot of time with her. However the activity the dogs were into caught her attention too.

We soon realized that there was a mice in the kitchen, that the dogs were trying to chase away. Though the word ‘mice’ was smaller than a ‘rat’… it bought back thoughts about us spending a night with a rat in the tree house in Dandeli. I was standing on the bed almost the whole night and could see the eyes of the rat almost everywhere!! Sagar and Sunishka were with me there, to share the fear … here I was alone …..

I decided to head up to my room and continue my reading and blogging, hoping the mice wouldn’t find her/his way up there. A little later I heard Mona talking loudly to her dogs.. who had killed a little mice in the kitchen. I went down to witness the aftermath of the war! And I asked her about Tinkerbell….I had watched Mona’s podcast that was released last month, where Tinkerbell a beautiful cat made her presence during the shoot. Mona told me, how Tinkerbell had gone away when she had been to Kumbh and how she was trying to reach her through the animal whisperers.

She also spoke about how an ecosystem gets disturbed when one character of it goes away, as we were witnessing. Tinkerbell was here before these 3 dogs came, and so she held a position of her own. These indie dogs wouldn’t accept any other cat, as they have killed cats that have tried to enter Redstone. So Mona was in a dilemma as to how to introduce another cat in this system now…  tonight however, we were seeing the effect of the missing link.

I discussed with Mona what all ‘hidden and unknown beauties of Panchgani’, that i could see in the next couple of days. She told me about Mandakini’s Devrai Art village and also the Dobhi falls at Mahabaleshwar. Asked her if these were places one could go ‘solo’… she she was not very sure about the Dobhi falls place. I decided to go to the Devrai art village tomorrow and plan the rest later. I wanted more time with Mona, so I told her, that I would have lunch at Redstone tomorrow. She noted it!

She had some online class at 9, so excused herself.. I however told her that I wasn’t very comfortable with rats, so requested the lights of the kitchen to be on. She comforted me, saying it would be. Like in most farm houses, the toilet and bathroom were separate and not attached to the room. It was downstairs, taking into account the plumbing and sewage requirements. I decided to go once before I head to the bed. Mona’s place however had the latest fittings and equipment. One didn’t get the feeling of being in a typical farm house. I still however made sure the toilet and bathroom were not already un-inhabited with any other creature, before I went ….

Decided to go to Vitthal Kamat for breakfast tomorrow and then go to the Art village thereafter. 9.10 pm, I was tucked in the bed and was trying to get adjusted to the temperature and the number of blankets I would need. The combination however was not coming through. I couldn’t pin point what the reason was… a new bed, the immense silence and quiet around, the fear of rats, the fear of just being with an unknown person in an unknown space, the temperature or something beyond all the above.... but I was wide awake until 1 am atleast. I wanted to re-visit the loo… and debated within myself for a solid 15 minutes, if I REALLY needed to go… then scolded the ‘within me’ who was looking for excuses and picked up the phone, with its light on and descended the steps to go to the loo.. which was around 200 mtrs away. I realized there were 2 types of ‘fears’ I was facing. Fear of physical things, that I am not used to.. the ones I can put a face to – for eg. Lizards, rats, snakes. And another kind of ‘fear’, which was just a feeling and had no face I could put on. And I felt it kept taking different faces….

Slept for a few hours and then got up to make myself a cup of tea around 6.30 am. The dogs btw, are closed in a room after the toilets and bathrooms where they spend the night. Morning, Mona leaves them open and they are all over the place through the day. There are also 2 cows at Redstone. Theres a gotha built, though Mona feels they do better tied outside in the open. Rain, sun-shine… they are tied outside and there is a special bonding with Mona. I feel they really talk to her and she understands them like her children. There is a little walk way behind where the cows are tied, which opens to a  little hillock. Mona takes the cows grazing herself, when the grass grows there.  (after the rains). I decided to take my morning walk on this hillock and the 3 doggies took it as their responsibility to show me the way. They jumped and ran around leading the way for me, and if I took a different route, they would come to where I was and give me a look, asking.. “ where the hell do you think you are going 😊”. So I decided to just follow them and went and sat at the top of this little hillock. There was development all around, but it was much better than the view from a tekdi in Pune.

Had a quick shower with water that was boiled on the gas and stepped out for my breakfast. Again I was handed over 2 menu cards.. which I respectfully gave back. Had a quick breakfast and headed to the Devrai Art village. It said opens at 10 am, and I was there around 9.45am. I wandered around for 15 minutes, exploring the area around the store, which had huge bamboo trees and also a water body with lilies and huge metal Nandi around. It was an artistic and vibrant space.

Devrai art village had a store, a factory where artisans were working on a patented art form called rock dhokra- where they mix rock and metal to make art pieces. Mandakini soon was there taking me around and going over her journey in Panchgani and how the space we were at had grown in the last 27 years. I decided to come back and do their painting workshop in the 2^nd half of the day. They were also hosting a ‘puppet-tree’ workshop for school kids from Mumbai. The whole place was busy with a lot of work going on, on different fronts… I left happy to be able to come back again in the afternoon.

I went back to Redstone, thinking I will be having lunch with Mona, but she had in her own schedule of things eaten an early brunch. She apologized however and sat with me while I ate some nice home cooked bhakri sabzi, salad and rice! The meal ended with a peppermint leaf from the garden and some cranberry stuffed in it… the pan with the twist.. was yummy..

At around 3 I left to go to Devrai art village and explore my artistic side further. With an artist graduated from JJ school of art guiding and aiding me, I brought to life nice painting with 3 pieces of molten metal and a hue of colors. The art piece was to get a permanent place in our living room soon..

After I finished my 3 hour painting session at the Devrai gallery, I drove to Mahabaleshwar, until I could go without paying the toll. Our grey Kushaq had her windows down and the sunroof open to let the awesome weather drive along with me. I stopped for chai at one restaurant on the way and also picked up a box of strawberries to be my closure of food for the day. It was a wonderful drive, until I headed back to Redstone around 6.30 pm. It has started raining, and there was a confusion if these rains were pre-monsoon or the real monsoon.. what is in a name… 😊 I was enjoying it.

I sat down with Mona and asked her about my next day’s plan. I was to do the Krishnai temple (which is the source of the river Krishna) and also the Dobhi falls point, which was a small but nice trek along a valley. Mona said she could accompany me, but was not sure of somethings that were lined up for the next day. As we were talking, Mona had some uncomfortable feeling on her back. A boil that was with her for over 40 years, had burst now. I tried to help her with some dressing, but we both felt it needed to be seen by a doctor soon. She had her doctor also on call, online, and we decided to look at it in the morning. Lights were on again this night too and I saw some movies that Mandakini from the Art Devrai had directed before sleeping a little earlier today.

Got up at around 6 and did a 45 minute yoga stint, followed by a chai for myself. I waited and checked on Mona and decided to go over to the medical shop and get some dressing material for her. The house helps came, did the dressing for her and since she was feeling better, agreed to come along with me for my visit around Panchgani. We decided to do both Krishnai temple and Dobhi ghat. The whole setting was beautiful and spontaneous- both the drive we were going to have and the company I was with. 

 There was road work going on everywhere at Panchgani and we ended up first going to Dobhi ghat. The actual spot was no longer marked anywhere and the drive led us to a touristy location buzzing with people. It had also slowly started to rain. Mona had packed backups ke upar backups and we were ready to walk to the now invisible walk to Dobhi ghat. We parked our car and walked to the location as Mona remembered near the small shiv temple on the road. What then began was a beautiful trek right at the onset of monsoon. We spoke about her life, the concept of home schooling that they started, computer education, and living in the wild. As we walked I realized how beautiful the whole valley looked. We walked until the small dam that was built there, and how Mona had intervened and stopped the work at the stage it currently is in. As we kept walking, huge droplets of water started falling on us .. and I smiled. It was just the perfect setting to welcome the monsoons this year. We decided to head back, as it would get slippery if the rains got heavy. She also showed me another type of Karvi ( the plant that blooms every 7 years only), that was commonly found in that region. People were collecting seeds of Karvi around, to propogate them around. As we started to walk back the rain had started showing its intensity with pride and I heard a distant bird call.. amazing and just fitting the ambience around. I looked at Mona and she said.. that’s the Malabar whistling thrush.. there to welcome the rains for us.

As I was walking with Mona, I realized she was part of all the environment work in Panchgani for a long time now, building relationships and learning how to wade through situations. She also asked about the work I was part of in Pune, with regards to rivers. We shared; how interpersonal skills is a prime requirement for making any mass movement happen. And here I was spending the day with a person, whose eyes lit up when she tended to people and it felt great that she not having to try at all… 

Despite all the back ups, we were soaking wet by the time we walked back to our car. Mona had brought along some dry clothes too, which she put on keep herself warm. We then got stuck in some traffic en route to Krishnai temple. Made it there finally and I left Mona in the car and walked up to see the source of Krishna river, made into a temple structure. The valley view from there was also great. 

 

Picked up some hot masala corn with me from the entry point of the temple and the drive back to Redstone of almost 45 minutes was accompanied by more ghupshup and warm corn! I got to know stories of her childhood and some of the adventures of her life, which seemed so different and fresh for a city bred girl like me. I was enjoying like a kid, visualizing all of it, as she was narrating them to me. 

Lunch was ready when we got back to Redstone and both of us ate really well, as we were both tired and hungry. I made a cup of tea for myself around 6 and just rested. The books I glanced through were mostly by ‘The Mother’ from Auroville and Mona had a whole section of her books. I decided to buy few for myself once back in Pune.

We had bonded through the day and Mona and I sat down to chat through the evening too. An interesting personality who had done exceptional things, that was really real! She was someone who had worked on instincts very strongly all her life and was still trying to make sense of it…but for us when we look at it from outside, it seemed beautiful and complete already.

She is a very hands on person, who  now feels she has missed out on gaining intellectual knowledge. She is part of so many online courses, that I too felt overwhelmed. The evening chat again went into all varying subjects she had studied and was studying. Me trying to get the most of this interesting personality I was with. The mice/ rat menace was still on and she joked as to how she might have to mention it during booking now 😊. There was a huge group of 20 people coming in the next day, after I left. The place had been getting ready for that today.

I felt like singing for her and also sang a couple of lines of an old Kishore Kumar song, which she didn’t know.. but enjoyed the lyrics. The farm visit around her house was due and we decided to do that in the morning the next day.  She had also moved out of the room downstairs and so allowed me to use the attached bathroom that was in the room downstairs. So this night, I travelled less to go to the loo. This bathroom had a big bath tub and it though looked great, somehow did not fit into the whole concept of the farm house. When I asked her about it, she told me how a bad accident of hers needed water therapy and lying on the bath tub worked best for that. It was brought in for this purpose, and remained, unused mostly occupying a big part of the bathroom.

After my morning yoga, and chai, we went to have the tour of the farm/ forest around which had a lot of experiments and its fruits around. She had done a mandala farming where different species of plants were grown in concentric circles. There was experiment, learning and involvement written all over the 2 acre farm, which had the shikakai climber on its periphery. There was a food forest which had lianas growing on it and also had beer bottles being used as bunds.  

All that she liked had come to life there, be it grapefruit, oranges, avocado planted – yet to fruit and also pomegranates. I saw a patch that was clean as a landing and when asked, she said the shooting of Ghoomar- Abhishek Bacchan starrer happened at her place.. also in the same breath she said, she wouldn’t want to do anything like that again….

I suddenly remembered the movie and the locale; they fitted like a jigsaw puzzle. On the back was also hay stocked up for the cows, during the summers when they don’t around to graze. I asked her about snake stories, one of the pet peeves of every urbanite. To which she said, there are plenty. Also, one where the house help had killed one snake awaiting compliments, when what she got was a solid dose of ecosystem balance.

It was time to pack my bags and head home after 4 days of being with me.. myself.. and Mona 😊. There was an energy, perspective, and connection to the soil that I had absorbed this year, with the advent of monsoon. I hope to carry this along for the rest of the year, and also years to come. Wanted something physical also that I could take along with me .. and ended up taking half a kg of compost, an after effect of the love that Redstone had in it. I hope to spread that love in my garden too and see the flowers bloom with a tinge of magic brought from Redstone in Panchgani..

The drive back had a stop at Wai to watch the Menavali ghat built on Krishna river, whose source I had witnessed in Mahabaleshwar. Just sat down there, and saw the beauty that man had created on an already existing beauty of nature... 

A straight 3.5 drive back to reality was filled with happiness, memories, confidence and accomplishment. I realized nothing and no one lives in isolation and we can become truly what we are only by acknowledging that we do not exist by, from and for ourselves.…

Cheers to many more meaningful solo trips..